More erosion of private property rights to condemn land for economic development and non-transportation revenue purposes

A growing state bureaucracy to manage all of the “innovative” strategies to create new streams of revenue.

The people of Texas reject this future and ask our state lawmakers to restore sanity and sound planning so that citizens can spend time in commerce and with their families, rather than in traffic. This is a fundamental issue and a core responsibility of government that arguably affects all Texans more than any other state government function, including education.

Solutions:

Return to pay-as-you-go road financing. Stop building roads with debt.

Ensure adequate tax revenues are available for Texans to control their own transportation destiny rather than being subject to the whims of the federal government, interest rates, and private toll road companies. Redirect transportation- related taxes to roads by ending diversions of the gasoline tax, dedicating vehicle sales taxes and registration fees to adding and maintaining road capacity.

Prohibit tolling existing free lanes, and/or the conversion of public right of way into toll roads, and stop paying for toll projects with taxpayer dollars. Require that all toll projects be self-financed and prohibit taxpayer bailouts of losses in toll revenues and failed toll projects. Ban ‘non-compete’ agreements which prevent the state from building new capacity.

Repeal ‘system financing’ which allows toll revenues from one corridor to be used to prop-up or finance another.

Prohibit the leasing out of public right-of-way to a private company when the land was condemned for a ‘public use.’